See 9 Details That We Never Noticed in Famous Paintings

Artists very often tends to leave special hidden messages in their artworks. But we are used to commonly looking at paintings as a whole, without paying attention to seemingly little details.

The Buzz Life has found 9 famous canvases that aren’t as simple as they seem at first glance. we added a bonus at the end too: an unknown artwork by Leonardo da Vinci, which may turn out to be another secret masterpiece.

9. The Whale That Wasn’t

This very modest landscape has concealed the truth for 150 years. A restorer, cleaning the surface of the picture, found on it a painted whale, washed up on the shore. The artist Hendrick van Anthonissen decided to paint over it, thinking a work without a dead animal would be more popular with the audience.

Loading...

8. The da Vinci Code

Members of Italy’s National Committee for Cultural Heritage found the letters “LV” in the right eye of the Mona Lisa. They could indicate the name of the artist, Leonardo da Vinci. Another find is symbols in the bridge, appearing to be the number 72. It is believed that the bridge (destroyed in 1472) behind the woman’s left shoulder is in the Italian city of Bobbio. Perhaps this way Leonardo wanted to hint at the setting.

7. Male or Female?

For a long time, the person in this painting by Caravaggio was considered a woman. Only at the beginning of the 20th century did art critics see a young man in the lute player. A few signs indicate this: the notes are the bass part of Jacques Arcadelt’s “You know I love you and adore you,” as well as the lute and the violin, considered male instruments in Caravaggio’s time.